Arrête de la Cour de Cassation

This Dreyfusard (or pro-Dreyfus) broadside celebrates the fact that the Cour de Cassation, France's highest court had finally ruled on “breaking” (cassation, thus the name) the previous decision of the lower court that had indicted Dreyfus on December 22, 1894, and had ordered a retrial. Instrumental in bringing about this decision was the “faux Henry,” the false documernt prepared by Major Henry to strengthen the circumstantial case against Dreyfus. (When the forgery was discovered, Henry was arrested and thereafter committed suicide, while the true culprit in this case of espionage, Major Esterhazy, fled to Belgium.) On May 27, 1899, despite enormous pressure from the anti-Dreyfusards, the Cour de Cassation ruled in requiring a new trial. It invoked retroactively the 1895 addition to article 445, which stipulated that when, after a conviction, a new fact has been established or when documents unknown at the time have been discovered tending to prove the innocence of the person convicted, a retrial could be considered. Madame Dreyfus and her bevy of lawyers scored a major victory towards the eventual exoneration of Captain Alfred Dreyfus. However, the Cour de Cassation's final pronouncement of Dreyfus' innocence would not come for another six years, on June 15, 1906. See Norman L. Kleeblatt, The Dreyfus Affair: Art, Truth, and Justice (1987), pp. 42-7; EJ VI, cols. 227-8